White | B. BARNES

Chapter 6

📍 Washington D.C. | January 2014

"Drop the shield, Cap! On your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!" Brock Rumlow shouted as they get surrounded by HYDRA agents.

Steve holds his hands up.

"Get on your knees! Down!" Rumlow kicked his leg for Steve to kneel. "Don't move."

Rumlow looked at the helicopter flying above them and warned Rollins who was holding Steve at gunpoint, "Put the gun down. Not here. Not here!"

Rollins lowered his gun as the HYDRA agents then take the four to custody.

One hauled Natasha up, making her grunt. The lady in white immediately shoots pain at the man who's holding him.

He screamed, making everyone point their guns toward the white woman.

Rumlow spoke, "43102, I suggest you put a stop to it before we hurt your friends."

Looking at him makes her want to hurt him more, but pulled back her abilities, not wanting to endanger the lives of her companions.

The guards beat her up a couple of times as the three could do nothing but watch.

"Take her to another vehicle," Rumlow ordered as they hauled her up with her wrist behind her and then pushing her head forward. Before forcing her inside a van, they stuck a needle on her neck that made her fall unconscious.

"Hey! Where are you taking her?!" Natasha shouted as the other three were escorted to another van.

"It was him. He looked right at me like he didn't even know me," Steve said across the two.

"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago," Sam asked.

"Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..." Steve answered him, trailing off.

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha reassured him, leaning her head back.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky," Steve said.

Sam noticed Natasha is bleeding through the black fabric wrapped around her shoulder.

He looked at the guard beside him, "We need to get a doctor here. We don't put more pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck."

The guard pulled out an electric rod which made Sam lean back. Unexpectedly, the guard neutralized the other guard and knocked him out.

The three stared in shock before the guard took off the helmet to reveal Maria Hill.

"Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain," she said, fixing her hair to the side. She looked at Sam in confusion and back to Steve, "Who's this guy?"

Rumlow's crew stop their vehicles and get out, "Guard 43102," he commanded some of the men to look after the sleeping experiment. It's been 9 years since they started looking for her after escaping.

"Three holes. Start digging," Rumlow said before they opened the van holding Steve, Sam, and Natasha to find it empty with one of the guards left unconscious and massive burnt whole on the car floor.

Hill took the three to a secret facility when a man runs towards them. "GSW. She's lost at least a pint," she said, referring to Natasha's wound.

"Maybe two," Sam butted in.

"Let me take her," the doctor said.

"She'll want to see him first," Hill said before the three looked at her in confusion.

She unveiled the curtain to see a Fury lying on the bed, alive. They all looked at him in shock.

"About damn time," Fury said to them.

Natasha got immediately assisted to sit down, so the doctor could tend to her wounds.

"Lacerated spinal column, a cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache," Natasha spoke while being treated.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor added.

Nick replied on the bed, "Oh, let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good."

Still, in disbelief, Natasha uttered, "They cut you open. Your heart stopped."

Fury stated, "Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?" Steve asked, standing at the end of the bed with Sam.

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," answered him.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust," Fury said.

"Angel," Natasha murmured.

"Who?" Sam asked.

"Angel of Death. We were with her earlier. Do you know her?" Natasha questioned Fury.

"You broke her out of prison?" Fury looked at Steve.

With his arms crossed, Steve answered, "Technically, she was free to go. She helped us with HYDRA."

Sam scoffed, "Yeah, by flipping our car."

"She's a highly skilled being when it comes to assassinations. No one knows what she is," Fury explained.

"Neither does she," Natasha said. "Earlier, when she wrapped my wound, all she said was that she wished she knew what she was when I asked her. All she knew is that she's as strong as the Winter Soldier and you Steve, if not stronger."

"She also has this voodoo shit that when she looks at you, all you feel is crawling pain throughout your body," Sam added.

"Vodoo?" Hill asked him.

"It's not voodoo she says," Steve corrected him.

"How do you know," Fury asked Sam.

Sam explained, "She did it to me. It was sudden and painful. It started with my head, then it began to cripple my spine and the other parts of my body."

"Hm," Fury hummed in intrigue, "What were you thinking before reacting to it when she started?"

Sam laid his arms up, "I don't know! Did you think when you were bombed?"

"No."

"Exactly," Sam said, proving his point. "All you want to do is to stop the pain."

"And where is she now?" Fury asked them.

"With HYDRA," Steve replied. "She was knocked out with a needle before she was taken on a separated car. Zola mentioned a scientist creating her. So she must be a property to them because when she was being called out, earlier it was my number."

Fury nodded, "We must move fast. They might use her against us, now that she's with them if she's that powerful."